American Dream's Costumes

Now, this probably should have come out much earlier but for various reasons no one cares about, it didn’t. So for this next entry in my new favourite research-heavy series of posts about the MC2, we’ll be looking at the statuesque blonde champion of truth and justice herself, the MC2’s Avengers own Shannon Carter aka American Dream. Specifically, we’ll be taking a deep dive through her various appearances to showcase any and all of American Dream’s Costumes.

 

Obviously, the star-spangled Avenger’s most iconic costume is her most used design which first appeared fully in A-Next #4, alongside the rest of Shannon’s Dream Team members. Artist and co-creator Ron Frenz had this to say about designing the look on Adam Chapman’s Comic Shenanigans podcast:

 

‘I was working too hard to avoid the obvious. When I first conceived of the idea of doing a female Captain America, I playing with a bunch of different ideas. One of them was a black girl with no hair sticking out the back. What I didn’t like at the time - which I look back at it now it’s probably something I shouldn’t have worried about - I didn’t like the way the brown skin looked against the medium blue of the suit. So, I kept playing with different ideas, we had a lot of different ideas; a lot of different ideas for names, a lot of different ideas for approach. At one point what occurred to me - and which I thought was something Tom responding to well- was we weren’t going to make her related to Steve Rogers. We didn’t know enough about Steve Rogers to have her be a cousin or something like that. But Sharon Carter was right there and I said ‘well, wait a minute! She’s related to Sharon Carter!’ And right there, I said ‘screw it, I’m going to make her a statuesque blonde!’ We just kind of went with it from there.’

 

Here are some of the initial designs that Ron has shared online in the past, presented in no particular order. These really demonstrate the process and give a nice taste of what could have been:

 

As usual, we’ll be doing things from an in-universe chronological order. With that said here’s the earliest ‘costume’ for Shannon Carter as seen during a flashback in American Dream #3. It’s really just Shannon’s gymnastics attire, but I like that she’s almost always colour coded in red, white and blue. It’s a nice touch.

 

Here’s more gym attire from Shannon’s high school years, specifically from her first meeting with Brandon Cross (later known as Freebooter) as seen in the next flashback in American Dream #3.

 

It’s not clear exactly when, but Shannon got a job as an Avengers Compound tour guide, so I figured I’d include it here rather than ignore it or place it later. First appearing in Shannon’s first appearance in A-Next #1, this uniform returns in the American Dream mini-series.

 

Just as we did with Freebooter, I’m going to also include Shannon’s martial arts training uniform or ‘gi’ (American Dream #3). It’s worth noting that neither Aerika nor Blue wear these uniforms here, suggesting only Brandon and Shannon had martial arts focused training. This would make sense given the two young women have superhuman abilities while Shannon and Brandon have only their skills to rely upon.

 

Up next, we have Shannon’s first superhero identity: Nomad. Presented to her by her mentor Clint Barton aka Hawkeye as a graduation gift, Shannon expressed her desire to evoke the image of Captain America and carry on his legacy (American Dream #3). I’ve done some colour changes to give you an idea of what it would have looked like without the flashback colour filter.

 

American Dream #4 finally depicts our earliest instance on-panel of Shannon wearing her iconic American Dream costume, just in time to see the newly formed Avengers team gain headlines.

 

In the pages of A-Next #3 we get a white and red variant of Shannon’s tour guide uniform. It’s this same issue that we’d see the Dream Team for the first time, hidden in shadow prior to their debut next issue.

 

In the real world we’d get our first glimpse of the American Dream costume in full in A-Next #4. Nuff Said!

 

Two issues later, we get a new American Dream costume and tour guide uniform all rolled into one, with A-Next #6 giving us this design which resembles one of Ron’s design sketches above. I kind of like it, though it makes me wonder whether Shannon’s secret identity is public knowledge and it’s just Hope Pym that is oblivious to it in the American Dream mini-series?

 

While not an actual alternate costume, we see Shannon in her American Dream suit without her mask on in A-Next #8 so here it is, for my completeness sake.

 

American Dream has a slight change of look while on the parallel world ruled by Doom in A-Next #11, when her long golden locks are cut off to allow her to gain the upper hand in a battle. This look remains consistent for a while after the A-Next series concluded with Shannon’s guest appearances retaining the short hair until Spider-Girl #30. From then on, Shannon presumably used a wig to cover her shorter hair while it regrew. It goes without saying, from A-Next #11 onwards Shannon wields the iconic shield of the alternate world’s Captain America.

 

Backtracking slightly, I wanted to mention the occasions where Shannon has run out of her wrist and calve-mounted projectile disks, or when her disk launchers have been removed by an opponent (A-Next #12, American Dream #4).

This next one is a bit of an oddity. Presented as a bonus pin-up image in the Spider-Girl Annual ’99 we also see new costume design by Ron Frenz once more. I’m also guessing there may be a colouring error on the boots and gloves, but who knows?! This scene might be canon, but I’m not sure where you’d place it if it is. I’m probably just overthinking it!

 

 Here’s what Ron Frenz said about it in the aforementioned podcast interview:

 

‘I had also come up with a different design that only showed up once in a pin-up in a Spider-Girl Annual. There was a pin-up of Spider-Girl fighting the Avengers and the team involved Coal Tiger and a different design of American Dream where her costume was a darker blue and she had no hair sticking out. That was a thought I had, because she promises herself in issue eleven ‘if being a soldier is the only way I can rid the universe of scum like you then a soldier is what I’ll be’ or something like that. So I kind of saw Shannon as possibly going through a darker time, a more serious approach to everything. Which ended up not being the way the character went because the book got cancelled and she ended up in the hands of Defalco and Todd Nauck and Pat Olliffe and a bunch of other people. C’est la vie!’

 

Back in Spider-Girl #31, there seems to be either another disk on her wrist area or else some kind of never before seen gadget which doesn’t return the following issue or ever again.

 

Skipping forward to Spider-Girl #81 which is both a great story and great source of colouring errors, we see a few different colour mistakes, with the white areas of Shannon’s costume appearing flesh-toned and a bluer colouring on her entire suit on another page. The bare arms look returns in Spider-Girl #83 with Dream also having blue coloured disks (this will happen on and off, just go with it!) and carrying a silver shield which sometimes appears to have a ring of colour. The blue disks with the addition of blue gloves also cameo. Moving on!

 

In her own American Dream mini-series we get a good look at Shannon’s motorcycle and because she’s a paragon, her costume includes a themed helmet. We’ll be seeing a lot of this helmet in later stories.

 

Also in this mini-series, for the first time (outside of a cover image for Last Hero Standing) we see the classic Captain America-style wings atop American Dream’s mask, courtesy of artist Todd Nauck,

 

Appearing in the Spectacular Spider-Girl mini-series, we get a new variation on Shannon’s classic American Dream costume by Ron Frenz. Here, the red and blue stripes do not extend to the back. This look appears with and without the helmet, but notably doesn’t include the little wings on the mask.

 

American Dream next appeared in the Captain America Corps mini-series, with wings on her head again and stripes all the way around her abdomen. But this time, the stripes form a slightly different cut which doesn’t point upward toward the star on her chest.

 

Another variation which seems to only appear mid-way through a battle seen in Captain America Corps #4 and #5 is the addition of a belt with pouches. Presumably Shannon picked this up during the conflict because it’s not seen beforehand and is absent upon her return to her home reality. Dream also uses a firearm in this battle.

 

Finally, for the MC2 story during Secret Wars: Spider-Island, American Dream returns to the variant of her costume seen in the Spectacular Spider-Girl mini-series.

 

I think that’s it. If you think I’ve missed out on a costume, please let me know. I can take it! I think American Dream has the perfect blend of classic and new in her costume design which makes her stand out as a unique and iconic character in her own right.

 

Until I throw together my own red, white and blue star and striped costume, I remain

 

frogoat